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Well let's open our Bibles then to the fifth chapter of 1 John and return for part 2 of our look at the opening five verses under the title "The Overcoming Life" or on being an overcomer. We're in the last chapter of this remarkable epistle. In the opening five verses we are introduced to a concept that is rich and glorious for all of us who are Christ's. It is the concept of being an overcomer. Let me read the text, verses 1 to 5. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever" – or whoever – "is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
Three times in those last two verses we are introduced to the idea of being an overcomer, overcoming. Just another way to say triumphing, winning, defeating an opponent. We are by definition overcomers, and we looked at that a little bit last time. By way of review, simply to remind you that it means we are winners. There's a wonderful little verse tucked in the second chapter of 2 Corinthians that says, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ." Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ. Us being believers. God always leads us in triumph, because being in Christ we enter into His triumph.
In the language of Paul, as we noted last time, we are more than conquerors, super-conquerors, hyper-conquerors. The Greek is hupernikē from which we get Nike. We are super conquerors. In the language of John we are overcomers, those who overcome. We are triumphant. And we talked about that a little bit last week. Once a person is regenerated, once they have become a believer in Jesus Christ and been born again and justified and adopted into the family of God, once they have been delivered from sin and death and hell, once they have been converted, adopted, and sanctified, Christians are invincible in the ultimate sense. This, of course, means that our salvation is eternal. We are eternally secure. We will persevere to the very end. Nothing can remove us from the Savior's grasp. We sin; we fail; we struggle, but we never ever lose any battle ultimately, finally, with the world, with the flesh, or with the devil. Our faith, our salvation are indestructible.
You say, well I know about people who were in the church, they confessed Christ, professed Christ, did everything that all of us were doing, and then they departed. What about them? And we are reminded again of 1 John, a very important portion, chapter 2 verse 19, "They went out from us but they were not really of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us but they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us." Down in to verse 27, "As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." True believers remain. That's what abide means. Those who don't remain, those who depart only manifest the fact that they never were really of us to start with.
Your faith, the faith by which you were saved, faith given to you by God is permanent faith. It is indestructible; it is unconquerable faith. That is its nature. It is not because you are unconquerable; it is because the faith which God in mercy and grace granted you is permanent faith. Our text then is focused on the fact that no matter what may come our way, we are overcomers. "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." And therefore we triumph in the power of Christ. This is such an encouraging reality. There is never going to be anything that will come against us that can steal our eternal life.
Now we talked about this definition, first of all, of overcomer: One who conquers, one who defeats, one who is unconquerable. And we mentioned to you last week that that is not something that the ancient world believed belonged to human beings. They were fairly realistic. And they realized that no matter how good a person might be, no matter how right they might try to live, no matter how they might direct their lives, they were not invincible. If there was such a thing as a mortal who had some great powers by which he could triumph in unusual ways, he was almost considered a god. In ancient Greek times, if you read ancient Greek literature – I used to read a lot of it, particularly when I was a student because it fascinated me to understand how they viewed the spiritual and supernatural world – you find that it was the gods who were powerful. It was the gods who were unconquerable and invincible, and human beings were just failures. They might win here or there along the way, but ultimately it was real to portray humans as those who failed eventually.
Some of the fascinating legends that grew up around certain human beings that triumphed have so fancified their lives that we can't even get to the real core of what they were. Because it was so rare, they literally sort of made sort of semi-gods out of people. One story that always fascinated me was a story about Ariadne who was the daughter of the king of Crete. Now the king of Greece had a son named Theseus. And Theseus, the son of the king of Greece, and Ariadne, the daughter of the king of Crete, kind of had a thing going together, and they cared greatly for each other. Theseus wanted to do something to demonstrate his great prowess to finally win the hand of Ariadne. There was, according to the legends about this real person named Theseus, a cave somewhere in which a Minotaur was living. Do you have any remembrance about Minotaur in some of your studies when you were a student? That is a monster with a bull's body and a human head. And the Minotaur lived in this cave and anybody who got near the cave was killed, and the Minotaur had a regular agenda of coming out of the cave and eating seven Athenians and seven maidens regularly. And so they wanted to get rid of the Minotaur, and Theseus wanting to prove his prowess to win the heart of Ariadne determined to go in and find the monster and slay him. Now what made it difficult was the cave in which he lived was a labyrinth from which no one who ever went in had ever escaped, because once you got in you couldn't find your way out and eventually you gave up and were consumed, if not sooner, by the beast.
Well Ariadne wanted to assist her lover in his effort to convince her father of his worthiness for her hand, and so she smuggled him a sword. He was supposed to be able to prove his prowess by going with nothing but his bare hands, but she smuggled him a sword. And then she did a very smart thing, she tied a long scarlet cord to his foot so that he could find his way back out after he slew the beast – which he did. And he came out and won the girl. And you know how the story ends, they all lived happily ever after.
Well that's not true, but around this character Theseus, because he had a certain power and prowess, grew this kind of typical legend. Pure fantasy for sure, but not really a bad illustration of the believer who goes into the labyrinth of the enemy and slays the enemy with the sword of the Spirit and finds his way out because of the scarlet cord of the blood of Christ. That's a stretch but you get the picture. Basically the Greeks didn't believe that that was the normal way in which human conducted life and if somebody did that, they were turned into a legendary figure. That's the point.
What does Scripture say we have overcome? We went into that last time. We talked about the definition of an overcomer and the things that we've overcome. And we talked about Satan. The Bible is very clear; we've overcome the evil one. Death, we have triumphed over death and the grave. We have triumphed over sin. We have triumphed over the Law in the sense of the sentence of the Law. We have triumphed therefore over judgment. And we have triumphed over ignorance. We are the overcomers. We have triumphed.
And then, of course, most notably in the text we have overcome the world, and that is said three times, twice in verse 4 and once in verse 5. The world being the invisible system of evil that opposes God and is ruled by Satan. In fact, the Greek says, "We continually are overcoming the world." This is simply saying that once you've come to Christ, you will always triumph, your faith will be sustained. You're like Job; you might lose everything you possess, all your children, all your possessions, all your fortune, all your wealth, your health. You might lose it all but never will you deny your God. Never will you lose your faith and trust in Him. You might waver with certain doubts, never will you deny your Lord, because the faith that God gave you is a faith that triumphs over everything. We are then the overcomers.
Now how do you know these overcomers? So we go from a definition to a description and we got into this a little bit last time. And here John does what he's been doing all along in this epistle; he takes us back through the same test by which you know you're an overcomer, the test by which you know you're a Christian. And we go back down to verse 13 again in chapter 5, kind of the key verse of the whole book, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life."
How do you know you have eternal life? How do you know you're an overcomer? Well in these opening verses, we know that overcomers by three marks, the same things John has been talking about. Number one, faith – faith. Verse 1, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Verse 4, the end of the verse, "This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." Then again in verse 5, "Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." Three times – verse 1, verse 4, verse 5 – it says it is our faith that overcomes. You look at an overcomer and you can tell an overcomer because they believe in Jesus as the Son of God. That is, they believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They have an ongoing sustained faith in the gospel of the Son of God. The one who believes is the one who is an overcomer.
It was years ago, you remember, when I wrote the book on the Lordship of Christ called The Gospel According to Jesus? I point out in that book that there are people who believe that there are those who are on their way to heaven even though they do not believe. And later on a book came out in which a new term was coined – unbelieving believers – are going to heaven. That is people who once believed, don't now believe anymore, but the once believing was good enough, and even if they don't believe anymore they're still on their way to heaven. They are simply unbelieving believers. Then I wrote another book to deal with that ridiculous idea. You can tell who an overcomer is because their faith is sustained. They don't go from being believers to being unbelievers, because the very faith that they possess is a gift from God empowered by the Holy Spirit and sustained by Him as well. All of the overcomers are characterized by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that means they embrace all that is true about Him.
Now let's go to the second test to determine an overcomer. That was just the review. The second test is very familiar to us again in John's epistle. It is love. We go from believing in right doctrine, sort of the doctrinal test, to the moral or ethical test, and the second of John's three tests presented here to verify overcomers is love. Go back to verse 1. "Whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." Verse 2, "By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God." We'll stop at that point. You can tell an overcomer very simply. He or she loves God and loves whom God loves, the children born of Him. New birth, regeneration not only brings us into a faith relationship with God, it brings us into a love relationship with God and God's own people. We enter into a love relationship with the Father and with His beloved children.
Back to verse 1, "Whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." You can tell who is an overcomer. They love God and they love those that are God's. This has been part of John's emphasis all the way through. Go back to chapter 2 for a moment and verse 5. We've been saying all along he cycles back to the same things. Chapter 2 verse 5, "Whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected." And when you see the love of God matured in someone, "By this we know that we are in Him." How do you know when you're a Christian? Because you love God and you love those whom God loves.
Verse 11 – well, verse 10 and 11, "The one who loves his brother abides in the light. There's no cause for stumbling in him. The one who hates his brother is in darkness, walks in darkness, doesn't know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." If you don't love other believers, you're not in the light. If you're in the light, you love your brother. Chapter 3 and verse 10, again John winds his way back through the same truth, "By this" – he's going to give you the test here – "by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who doesn't practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." It's about loving your brother. Verse 17 adds, "Whoever has the world's good and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth, we shall know by this that we're of the truth and assure our heart before Him." And so we come back to the same principle there.
Look at chapter 4 verse 7, "Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love." Down to verse 12, "No one has beheld God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us." Verse 21, "This commandment we have from Him that the one who loves God should love his brother also."
How do you know you're an overcomer? How do you know you're a Christian? First of all, because you continue to believe. You may have moments of doubt. They're never final. They're never fatal because you have been given eternal life, sustained in the perseverance of the saints by a faith that is indestructible. How do you know you're an overcomer? Because you love God and you love God manifestly, that is to say you love God in a visible expression as you live your life and you also love those whom God loves.
Now we're not just talking about sentiment here. Loving God is not a matter of sentimentality. Loving God is a matter of desiring to honor and to please Him. Isn't that what we do when we love someone? The greater your love for someone, the greater the compulsion of your heart to do good for them, to honor them, to show respect and regard and to provide all that they need and more, to seek their pleasure, to do their will. And so those who love God are caught up, consumed with pursuing what honors the one they love. And then they also love those whom He loves, the children of God. It all comes down to how you treat other believers then. It's the practicality of living your life for fellow believers. That's how you can tell a Christian. If they seek friendships outside the family of God, if they have no compassion toward those in the family of God, if they don't literally hunger and thirst for spiritual fellowship with those who are God's, there's no life in them. There's no light in them. They walk in darkness.
We know we love God when we love the ones He loves. If it's a chore for you to show up here and if it's just your goal when you get here to try to escape the place without having to encounter anybody and you're only here because your wife drags you here, that's a pretty good indication that whatever you may think, you don't love God. Or you'd be coming into this place every time you had an opportunity so that you could join with the people who are His people whom you also love in a collective offering of praise to Him and to hear the one who love speak His Word to you.
I can tell when a student comes to the college whether or not they love God by how they treat the opportunity to study His Word, by how interested they are in being involved in a church, by how they approach chapel, Bible study, by how they treat fellow students. We're not talking again just about sentimentality here. We're talking about the kind of love that is the only love the New Testament really exalts and that is agapaō love, the love of the will. The love that says if you see somebody with a need you meet it. The love that is sacrificial. The love that is not necessarily dependent upon attractiveness. But the love that is simply demonstrated on every front where there is a need. The love that enjoys fellowship. The love that is eager to make whatever sacrifice is necessary for the good of another. It's how you approach God and how you approach His people that demonstrates whether you really love them.
If you love God, you long more than anything else to be in His presence, to hear Him speak, to praise Him and worship Him. And if you love His people, you long to be with them and to be the source of their needs being met as much as you can. You pray for them. You nurture them. You counsel them. You speak to them kindly. You exhort them. You encourage them. You confront them. You do whatever you need to do – all those one-anothers of the New Testament – for their spiritual benefit because you care.
There's a third characteristic that marks those who are overcomers, not just faith and love but obedience – but obedience. Look at verse 3 here, it really comes at the end of verse 2. "We know that we love the children of God when we love God" – and here it comes – "and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and his commandments are His commandments are not burdensome." Now let's put this together. We believe in God. We believe in Christ, who is God. And that faith produces love and that love produces obedience. If I believe that Christ is who He is, if I believe Christ is exactly who the New Testament says He is, if I believe God is who the Scripture reveals Him to be, then He is going to draw out of my heart all my love and all my praise and all my adoration and all my interest and all my attention. And I'm going to be consumed with Him as the priority of my life.
And as a second priority I'm going to be consumed with the people He loves because whoever He loves I love. That's just how it works. And if I truly love Him that way, the expression of that love is going to come in keeping His commandments, and considering His commandments as not burdensome – not burdensome. If you love somebody and they ask you to do something, you can't do it fast enough. Right? True love always issues in obedience, always rushes to the will of the person who asks, always longs to meet the need.
The genuine proof of faith is loving obedience, sustained loving obedience. And the only way that you can really demonstrate that you love God is to obey Him, that's the only way. That is to seek His honor and His glory, to show Him respect and worship, to reverence Him. If you believe as a true Christian that God is God and Christ is God and Christ is Lord and God is sovereign, you're going to find God the object of all your affections, and you're going to love God, and you're going to love Him so truly that it's going to show up in your desire to obey Him, and His Laws will never be burdensome to you anymore than it's burdensome to do what someone you love profoundly in this life asks you to do. You keep His commandments.
The end of verse 2, "Observe His commandments" That's poieō in the Greek. It means to continue to do them. It's action – continue to do them. A different word is immediately used in verse 3, "We keep His commandments." A different word from tēreō. We don't just do them. This word means regard them. We protect them. And that is to say we've gone from action to attitude. We not only do what God commands us to do, but we guard what He commands us to do as a sacred treasure. We're eager to do that. We don't find that burdensome at all, and that's what Jesus had in mind when He said, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you'll find rest for your souls." If you hook up with Me, if you take My yoke, it's not going to be burdensome like the yoke of the Law that you've been under with the Pharisees. In John 14:15 Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Verse 21 of John 14, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." Boy, what a promise.
So you say you're an overcomer. You say you're a Christian. The verification of that in your own heart, as well as to those around you, is your sustained faith in the truth. But there's got to be more than that, more than saying you believe – the devils believe and tremble – sustained love for God and others and a sustained love that manifests itself in a sustained obedience and an obedience that is not burdensome. So you have not only action of obedience, but you have an attitude of obedience. Or perhaps a better way to say it would be the desire of obedience. Deuteronomy 13:4 says, "You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him and you shall obey His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him." Now if you're a true Christian, if you're an overcomer, that's what you do. Ecclesiastes 12:13, "The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: Fear God and obey His commandments." First Samuel 15:22, "To obey is better than sacrifice."
And what kind of obedience are we talking about here? What we're talking about, as we've already noted, an obedience that is not burdensome. That is to say it's not a legal kind of obedience that's pressed upon us and we cave in and grit our teeth and do it against our will. Listen to Romans 6:17, "Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart." What a great statement. You became obedient from the heart. We're talking about a heart obedience. It's because that's what's in you. That's what you want to do. First Peter 5:2, "Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily." That's the kind of obedience the Lord wants from His shepherds and everybody else. Do it because you want to do it, not because you're forced to do it.
In fact, this obedience is not only motivated from the heart apart from compulsion, done willingly. But it should be done cheerfully. For example, remember 2 Corinthians 9:7, "Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart, no grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." God loves somebody who obeys His command to give and does it cheerfully. And that word, of course, means with hilarity, happily, joyfully. Disobedience to God is wrong. Disobedience to God is a betrayal of somebody who is not a true Christian. But so is external, unwilling, partial, inconsistent, and grudging obedience. Those who know God, those who are overcomers have a loving obedience and it is not burdensome.
You hear this repeatedly as the testimony of the great psalmist, David, in that magnificent treatise on the Word of God, Psalm 119. And I will only read you a couple of sample verses. Listen to 119:14, "I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches." What a statement! I am as happy with Your commandments as I am with all the riches. Verse 16, "I shall delight in Thy statutes." Verse 24, "Thy testimonies are my delight." Verse 97, "O how I love Thy Law." I love Thy Law. Verse 103, "How sweet are Thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth." Back to verse 54, this is amazing, "Thy statutes are my songs."
Now our society doesn't love the Word of God. Just one representation of the Word of God, the Ten Commandments, sitting in stone in a public place, and this society from the ACLU all the way up to the Federal Courts wants to get rid of it. They hate God's Law. It is a burden they refuse to bear publicly. For us, Your Law is our song. That fifty-fourth verse, isn't that an interesting verse? We could come together in church and the Law of God becomes our song. Compare that with the song of the world. Most of the world's songs, most of the popular songs in the world are about violations of God's Law. Warren Wiersbe many years ago said this, "Imagine turning God's laws into songs. Suppose a local symphony presented an evening of the traffic codes set to music. Most of us do not consider laws a source of joyful song. But this is exactly the way the psalmist looked at God's Law. Because he loved the Lord, he loved His Law."
You have laws in your home. You don't hear your kids sitting in their room writing tunes on their guitar, "O how I love to obey my mom and clean my room." That is against the nature. That's against your nature. You don't hear people write songs about, "O how I love the IRS, yeah, yeah, yeah." What is it about God's Law that makes us sing? It is the delight that we have in obeying it. Isn't it? Cause we love Him. His commandments are not burdensome. They are joyful. Loving is a duty. It is an act of the will, but it is not oppressive. That's what burdensome means. It is not crushing. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Why is it so delightful to do it? Because His Law is a reflection of Him, because to obey His Law pleases Him and we love Him and seek to please Him. Because He never gives us laws that obeyed are not for our benefit, and because we function in a relationship with God that is not a relationship of fear but a relationship of love. Now so much for the definition and the description of overcomers here.
Let's do something to wrap this up that takes us to another passage of Scripture. I want to talk, thirdly, about the delights of overcomers. Now that we know we're overcomers, and we know who the overcomers are – John, by the way, isn't finished with that subject, we just have to go to the book of Revelation to pick up the rest of it. So turn to Revelation. And what we find here is the delights that are provided for overcomers, the blessings, the special gifts that God gives overcomers. And it's in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation that you have the seven letters to the seven churches. And of course, you have sort of summed up in these seven letters promises to the church in general.
And at the end of each of these seven letters there is a promise, and there is a promise to the overcomers. Now churches are not just composed of overcomers. We would like to think that they're mostly overcomers, that maybe 95 percent of the people in the church and certainly in this church are overcomers. And we would have to admit that in some churches that call themselves Christians it might be one percent of people who are really Christians, really overcomers. But in any church in any circumstance, whoever the overcomers are they are given promises. These letters are written to seven churches and in these seven churches there were true believers and the promises to these true believers in these churches are expanded and extended to all believers throughout all time since the promises were given. They are then the universal delights that the Lord gives overcomers.
Let's look at the first church which was the church at Ephesus in the opening seven verses of Revelation 2, and you go down to verse 7. In the church at Ephesus, you remember, there was a serious problem. They had left their first love. Right? They had grown cold. And obviously there were people in that church who were not true Christians, but others were. In the middle of verse 7, "To him who overcomes" – to the overcomers there, the ones who have sustained faith, manifest love and obedience – "I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God." What is that? What's that promise? Well you remember when Adam sinned, God drove man from the Garden. He drove him from the paradise called Eden, sent him out from His presence and didn't permit him to eat of the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life caused someone to live forever, and once man had fallen into sin, God did not want him to live forever in that condition. The Tree of Life then symbolized eternal life. The paradise of God symbolizes heaven. And so what you have here is the promise that all overcomers will live forever eating the Tree of Life in the paradise of God.
Eden was quite an amazing paradise, of course. We know that. There was a magnificent watering system from four rivers going in all directions in the paradise of God, watering that incredible garden. But the heavenly paradise is even greater. Turn to Revelation 22, and if we look ahead into heaven, verse 1, John has a vision of heaven, "And He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb." In this paradise there's also a river, as there was in Eden that split into four. In the final paradise, there's a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and the Lamb. "In the middle of its street." This river goes right down the main street of heaven, the eternal capital city of the New Jerusalem. And, "On either side of the river was the Tree of Life." The Tree of Life going all the way down, beautiful symmetry on either side of the river, "With twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing." A better way to translate that, for the therapy, the well-being, or the enjoyment of the people.
When you get to heaven there's going to be Tree of Life. I don't know exactly what that means. People always say, "Well are we going to have a digestive system in heaven?" I don't know about that. I doubt that seriously, because we are eternal, and because there will be no corruption and no decay. We will have nothing in our glorified bodies that would cause anything to be decaying or to be processed in that direction. So that's not going to be a part of heaven. But there are going to be in heaven elements of heaven which symbolize the eternality of our life there and the joy of that place. So the first delight for an overcomer is eternal enjoyment of God's presence in the paradise called heaven. There where God lives from His throne will come the river, on both sides the symbols of eternal life, which we will all enjoy forever in the paradise of God.
And then the second letter of the seven letters is written to the church at Smyrna and to the true believers in that church, verse 11, "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. What's the first death? Physical death – physical death. The fruit of unbelief, the fruit of rejection, the fruit of sin. God, you remember, said to Adam, "Eat that tree, the fruit of that tree and you'll die." The first death is physical. But the second death is far worse, it is spiritual and eternal. "But the man or the woman who is an overcomer dies physically to never die again forever." The overcomer dies only that he may or she may live forever. We will die physically; we will not die spiritually; we will not die eternally. That is His promise to the overcomers.
In Revelation 20, again at the end of the book, verse 6, "Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power." And we participate in the first resurrection. What is the first resurrection? It's the resurrection of the just. It has several parts: Christ, the firstfruits who was risen from the dead, the church at the Rapture, and then the Old Testament saints at the end of the Tribulation. All three of those, the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the church, the resurrection of Tribulation saints and Israel, that constitutes the first resurrection. The resurrection unto life, Jesus called it. The second resurrection is the resurrection of all the ungodly of all the ages at the Great White Throne at the end of the millennial kingdom, and all of them are given bodies suited for hell and cast forever in the Lake of Fire. Those who are part of the first resurrection will never experience the second death. What have we been promised? We have been promised heaven, the paradise of God, eternal life, and never to die again.
The third promise to the overcomers is in chapter 2 verse 17. And this is given at the end of the letter to the church at Pergamum or Pergamos. This is the postal route, by the way, through Asia Minor. Each of these towns was on the postal route, actual towns with real churches. But certainly they symbolize these great truths for all believers. Verse 17, "To him who overcomes" – here we come back to the overcomer again. Who are the overcomers? Those who continue to believe, manifest love and obedience. "To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it."
This is most interesting. Jesus writing to the church here in Pergamos, acknowledges that there are some who, "Hold fast My name and did not deny the faith," in verse 13. There are obviously others who have not held fast and have denied the faith. But to those who overcome, first I will give you the hidden manna. Let me talk about that for a moment. A pot of manna – you remember what manna was. It was the bread that God provided for Israel in the wilderness wanderings, and you remember it was the direct provision of God. He literally had the manna there every morning when they came out to pick up and eat it that day, and the next morning there was more and the next and the next, except on the Sabbath. And the pot of manna was kept in the Ark of the Covenant and placed in the tabernacle and the temple as a memorial to the feeding of God's people in the wilderness.
When you read here about the hidden manna, what does this mean? I think it is referring to all that is ours in Christ. Do you remember when Jesus in John 6 was talking, He said, "You remember Moses in the wilderness and Moses fed you in the wilderness," but Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." I am the bread of life. I am the true manna that comes down from heaven. John 6:31 is worth reading in this regard. "Our father," said the Jews, "ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, 'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.' Jesus therefore said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven. It is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.'" And then verse 35, "I am the bread of life." And so here our Lord Himself says to the overcomer, "I will give of the hidden manna."
What can that mean? I think it means that when we get to heaven you're going to receive, as it were, Christ Himself. We're going to enter in to a dimension, into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that can only be hoped for and frailly imagined in this life. We are going to enter into the richness of the fullness of the one who is our very life, the fullness of blessing in the eternal presence of Jesus. Why hidden? Because now He's hidden. Isn't He? He's hidden from us, whom having not seen we love. But some day the manna, the bread of life will no longer be hidden.
Some of the old Hebrew legends – kind of interesting – said that when the temple was destroyed, the Solomonic temple, either Jeremiah – this is legend – but either Jeremiah, the rabbi said, or an angel buried the Ark in the earth, along with the pot of manna until Messiah's time. And the rabbi said when the Messiah comes, He will unearth the Ark and He will again feed His people. Well it wasn't far off. This time in our lives we have received our Christ, and we commune with our Christ. But in terms of His fullness, He is hidden, but some day will be fully revealed to us in all His glory as the true bread.
Then He says in verse 17, "I will give him a white stone." Literally a diamond. I'll give an overcomer a diamond. In the little bit of reading I've done in ancient times about the athletic events of that time – we often think about them receiving a sort of a wreath around their heads made of leaves, but there was often more than that. The winners of great events were often given a diamond as their prize and that white stone or that diamond, according to some historians, acted as a pass to get them into a celebration that was restricted only to the winners. It was the post-Olympic event that you wanted to be at because only winners were there, and you had to have the crystal gem to be admitted to the door. It was the symbol of your victory and your entrance into the great celebration of overcomers. And that may well be what our Lord is referring to here. I'm going to make sure that you as a winner, you as a victor have that diamond that admits you to the eternal celebration.
Do you notice again that it was what we were saying this morning, that all of these things that come to the overcomer relate to the next life. Right? It's about heaven. It's about eternal life. It's about the presence of God. It's about the presence of Christ. It's about participating in the celebration there. Oh, and by the way, that's not all. Verse 17 also says you'll get a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. Can't tell you how many times I've been asked what that name is. How in the world am I going to know a name that no one knows? Don't ask me what that name means? I don't know what that name is. Why would I speculate? I'll know when I see it. It's a name written on the stone on this crystal diamond which no one knows but the one who receives it. It might be the name of Christ. It might be my own name. But for now, I don't know what it is.
But you know what this tells me? That it's something very particular for me. Nobody is going to know it but the one who receives it. And I don't know how you think about heaven, but it's easy to think about heaven as just all of us sort of herded into the place, in this non-descript mass of perfect beings with nobody sticking out. That isn't it at all. Here, Christ says there will be for each of you on your diamond a personal name that shows that I know you. I tend to think it's whatever name He chooses to give us that we will literally bear forever. We will not be a mass of indistinguishable perfect people. We will be individuals with our own diamond-studded intimate identification, receiving personal attention and personal intimate knowledge with the Christ Himself.
The fourth letter in chapter 2 verses 26 to 28 was to the church at Thyatira. And go down to verse 26, "And he who overcomes and keeps My deeds until the end" – overcomers do that – "to him I will give authority over the nations." Wow. "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father." This is interesting. We're going to be given authority over the nations. Christ is going to share His authority with faithful overcomers. You say, "Well that's not going to be heaven." No, I think that's going to be in the millennial kingdom on earth. We're literally are going to rule with Christ in delegated authority as He rules with a rod of iron. That means striking down evil wherever it appears in the millennial kingdom, smashing iniquity whenever it occurs. We're going to be a part of that. It's Matthew 25:21 and 23 where Jesus said, "I will make you ruler over many things if you're faithful over little."
But there's more than that here, because amazingly when it says, "I will give authority over the nations" – or – "I will cause him to rule them" – the word rule in verse 27 is poimanei, which means to shepherd. So it's not going to be some kind of abusive thing. It's going to be stern, and it's going to be serious, and the threat of the rod of iron, the threat of judgment is going to be hanging over the head. But we're literally going to be His under-shepherds in the millennial kingdom. When we are taken up in the rapture, we receive our rewards. We come back at the end of the rapture. We come to earth. We reign with Christ for that thousand years, and He delegates authority to us by which we shepherd the nation, like shepherds shepherded sheep and they carried a rod. Did they not? They used that rod on occasion to knock the sheep back into line for its own protection. We will be delegated that responsibility of shepherding under the authority of our great King over all the peoples in that kingdom.
Then in verse 28 He adds, "And I'll give him the morning star." What is that? What is the morning star? Well look at Revelation 22:16. "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright" – what? – "morning star." What does this mean then, back in chapter 2 verse 28, "I'll give him the morning star?" The Father is saying I'll give them Christ. I'll give him Christ. Now I don't understand what all that can mean, but I understand that God already did that once. He gave His Son for me once. Didn't He? As my sacrifice for sin. How much more glorious and wonderful added to that is the fact that He gives me His Son in eternity, in a sense, for my own personal Lord and King? Everything again relates to eternity. Everything relates to heaven with that one exception that we're going to rule in our heavenly form. So for us it's part of our heaven because when we come back to rule with Christ, we'll be in heavenly form, already having been raptured, already having been given our eternally glorified bodies. That will be a heavenly experience for us on earth. We will already have been in heaven during the time of the tribulation, coming back to earth as heavenly beings. So that, even that is part of our heavenly experience.
And then in Revelation 3 we find a fifth letter to the church at Sardis and two features here down in verse 5. "He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments" – white garments. Go back to verse 4, "You have a few people in Sardis who haven't soiled their garments and they will walk with Me in white for they're worthy." White then becomes the symbol of purity, the symbol of worthiness, the symbol of righteousness. Oh sure, it encompasses festivity; it encompasses victory; it encompasses glory, but it really is the reflection of our real and true righteousness. We having been once covered by the righteousness of Christ, having been worthy only because He is worthy while we are unworthy, in our glorified condition become righteous and therefore become worthy and therefore wear garments of white.
And then He adds – and this is so important – "And I will not erase his name from the Book of Life. And I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." We not only receive worthiness, we receive security. Once you get to heaven you're never going to be anywhere else. "I'll never blot his name out of the Book of Life." In John's day, cities had a registry. Kings in their kingdoms had a registry of citizens. When a person committed a crime of some magnitude, their name was removed. It was blotted out of the city registry. They were outcasts. And Jesus is saying it may happen to you in your city in this world. It will never happen to you in the world to come in the city of heaven. Your name will never ever be erased.
Churches through the years have been persecuted. Christians have been excommunicated from all kinds of towns and cities and organizations. They have borne the fierce persecution of God-hating people. They have been blotted out, killed. Never in heaven – never in heaven. Savonarola, I saw his statue, we were in Italy last year, great preacher. He preached against Catholicism and the Pope sent a message to him. He said, "I separate thee from the Church Militant and Triumphant." The Pope excommunicated him. Church Militant is Church alive on earth; Church Triumphant, Church in heaven. Savonarola sent back a message, "From the Church Militant, yes. From the Church Triumphant, never." You can kill me, but you can't blot my name out of the Book. I will never do that, Christ says. I will never do that.
So what does it mean to be an overcomer? It means you receive heaven; that you receive eternal life, the paradise of God; that you have a personal identification by which Christ knows you as an individual; that you receive Christ in all His fullness, the manna no longer hidden, the bread of life no longer hidden; that literally you are given Christ as the Father's gift. It's just staggering realities, heavenly realities that you're going to walk in white because you're righteous and worthy of it. And your name will never ever, ever be removed.
And then in the third chapter and the twelfth verse, in the letter to the church at Philadelphia verse 12 says, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from My God and My new name." That's a lot. First of all, He says overcomers are going to become pillars in the temple of My God. In ancient times if you ever visited the ancient world, the ancient Greek world, you know they built all these temples with pillars. Right? You go to the ruins of Greece or the ruins of Asia Minor, Turkey, or wherever it is, even in Israel, and a lot of times you see what's left of the pillar. Sometimes they're toppled over. But great temples, great edifices, great buildings, great houses, great civic places in the cities were built with pillars.
And important people were honored by placing a pillar in one of the great temples. They would provide the money for the pillar and their name would be placed upon that pillar. Very often those pillars which you see now is stone, were overlaid with marble, and then overlaid with gold and the name of the person was there. And the idea was to make it as permanent out of stone, marble, gold as it could possibly be as a perpetual memorial or honor to a certain person. They were firmly set. They were secure. They lasted virtually for millennia. And God says, I'm going to bring you up here and I'm going to give you a name, a prominent name of honor in a pillar in My temple forever. What an amazing thought. And the further amazement is that none of us will have any pride about it, because we'll be perfect, and we will all possess perfect humility and yet we will understand that we, through the work of God in Christ, have been made worthy of such an honor. And He says, "He will not go out from it anymore."
Philadelphia, the city this letter was written to, was located near a large volcanic field constantly subject to earthquakes, which often destroyed the city and people had to run in fear out of Philadelphia. Where you're going there aren't any earthquakes. You don't have to worry about the great temple and the pillars coming down on your head, not in heaven. No fear, no pillars are going to collapse. You're never going to have to run from an earthquake. You can come into the temple where your name is in the pillar and be safe. Furthermore, not just a pillar. God is going to write on him, on the overcomer. Some of us are going to get our first tattoos. I'm going to – my first ones are going to be from Him. I don't want any others, when He's the only one that's going to be allowed to write on me. "I'll write on him the name of My God." Why? Belongs to God. This is God's. It's a staggering truth. "And I'll write on him ... the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, and I'll write on him My new name." Secured, loved, honored in inconceivable ways.
And finally, the seventh letter, verse 22, the letter to the church at Laodicea, a lukewarm nauseating church, but also had some overcomers in that congregation. And this is the pinnacle. I mean, up to now it just keeps – it mounts. Doesn't it? Eternal life That's good. That's good. The paradise of God. Wow, that's great. I'm thrilled about that. That's so wonderful. It's even more wonderful to know that I'm not only going to be in heaven, I'm not only going to be in the paradise of God, but I'll never ever be hurt by the second death. I will have that eternal life without any fear that I would ever lose it. It's wonderful to know that I'm going to have the full fellowship with the bread of life, Jesus Christ, that I'm going to have a crystal diamond that admits me to the celebration with a personal name written on it that nobody knows but me. It's the relationship with Christ and me. It's Christ's little nickname for me.
How wonderful on top of that to know that I'm even going to be able to come back to earth and be delegated authority to rule in His behalf. I'm going to be able to go around in white garments symbolizing a worthiness that I've never known except what was imputed to me. My name could never be erased from the Book of Life. God is going to know my name, because His Son is going to confess my name before the Father and before the holy angels, that He knows me and loves me and gave His life for me, and I belong there. I'm going to have a pillar in the temple of God with my name on it. I'm never going to have to run out of the place in fear. I'm going to have written on me the name of my God, the place of my dwelling, and my own new name.
And all of that and then this, verse 21, "He who overcomes I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne." That's just too much. That is too much elevation. Isn't it? I mean, at this point you want to say, "Come on, this is getting ridiculous. I'm not even worthy. Just showing up is enough." I said this some time back, I don't think the big shock of heaven is going to be, "Oh, look who's there!" I don't think the big shock of heaven is going to be, "Oh, look who's not here." I think the big shock of heaven is going to be, "How did I get here? What am I doing in this place?" And then it all comes and you're taken all the way up to sit down with God on His throne as Jesus also overcame. Oh, don't put me in that category. I will. And He sat on His Father's throne. You're going all the way up to snuggle down with the Son and the Father on the throne. Wow. That's what it means to be an overcomer. Those are the delights you have to look forward to. In light of that, we can endure anything in this life with that glorious hope. Amen?
Father, thank You for Your Word to us tonight. Precious, precious truth, overwhelming truth, thrilling truth, astonishing, embarrassing – embarrassing truth. We aren't worthy of this. What grace is this? What astonishing grace is this? Maybe we could understand taking us to heaven. Maybe we could understand eternal life in the paradise of God, but all the rest. And then sitting down on Your throne, it seems utterly presumptuous. We can't conceive of ourselves in that kind of holy perfection. We thank You for this promise and look forward to it with literally rapturous joy. We bless Your name and we praise You for the gift of salvation in Your Son. Thank You, thank You. We love You; we believe in You; we long to obey You. We want to be the true and the pure overcomers for whom all these delights are now being prepared.
Father, I pray for those who are here who do not have that sustained faith, that compelling love, that manifest obedience. Awaken anybody who is living under a self-delusion about their true spiritual condition and bring them to the foot of the cross to embrace the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf. If anyone here, Lord, tonight – and we're sure there are some – is not an overcomer, may You by Your grace awaken their heart to that reality and may they rush to cry out with penitence and faith, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me, for Jesus' sake," that they might become one of us who have overcome. Use us, Lord, while we're here that heaven might be all the more glorious when we get there. We thank You, in Your Son's name, Amen.
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Thank you all very much. Forget the Spam; I like coming to Minnesota because of the people. [Laughter] Thanks for coming today, and I appreciate the warm welcome.
Speaking about sports teams, I had the honor of hosting some sports teams there in the White House this week, two of which happened to be from the great State of Minnesota. It seems like the folks up here know how to play hockey. I welcomed the men's and women's hockey national champs from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and University of Minnesota-Duluth. And I've got to tell you, I was impressed by the character of the people on those teams. I know you're proud of them. It's an honor to have met them. They told me I'm going to see them next year, so—[laughter]—just like I saw them last year. [Laughter]
But it's great to be here. I also want to thank the Hamiltons, Harold and Eleanor, for opening up their business to—[applause]. Harold told me that he started his business at the kitchen table. It's really what America is all about, when you think about it. Thirty years ago, Harold and Eleanor sat down at the kitchen table—it might have been before lunch or after lunch, I don't know which one—but they said, "Why don't we see if we can't create an opportunity for not only our family but for others, an opportunity to work."
That's what we call the entrepreneurial spirit. That's the spirit that enables Americans to realize if they work hard, they can achieve a dream. Good government recognizes the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit, and good government creates an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish. And that's why I worked with the United States Congress to cut the taxes not only on the working people but on the entrepreneurs of America, so they can better realize their dreams.
I want to thank Governor Tim Pawlenty for doing in office what he told you he was going to do. I appreciate your State auditor. She, along with Tim, traveled from the airport. There was no road rage today. [Laughter] If you got caught—if you got caught in the motorcade, I'm sorry. [Laughter] But we made it in record time from the airport. [Laughter]
I appreciate other State leaders—the Lieutenant Governor is here; the speaker is here; the majority leader of the State house is here. Thank you all for coming. I'm honored you're here.
I just had a chance to not only visit with the owner of this fine company, but I had a chance to visit with other entrepreneurs—some of whom I'll mention in my address—and some of the good folks who work for the companies, good, hard-working Minnesota folks who are going to receive significant tax benefit, significant tax relief.
See, one of the things that I understand is, in Washington, DC, when we talk about money, we are not talking about the Government's money. We're talking about the people's money. And I had a chance to visit with some of the people whose money we're talking about, and what they intend to do with it. The message I heard over and over again from moms and dads was that they intend to save it for their children's future, and that's really important. It means people in this part of the world understand that a responsible society is one in which moms and dads understand their most important responsibility is to love their children with all your heart and all their soul.
I met Deborah Simonet. She's an application developer for 3M. She's a single mom. That's the hardest job in America, being a single mom. And she is saving for her son's college education. She gets pretty good tax relief, over $1,000 worth of tax relief, money that she gets to decide how to use, money she can allocate according to her needs.
I met the Steins, Jennifer and Terry. They've got five kids. They're a young family. He's working three jobs. She works a job at home, so she can not only put a little extra money on the table but take care of her kids as well. They're going to get good, substantial tax relief. For the sake of their children, they will have additional money. They get to decide to do with the money. It's their money, after all, to begin with.
And this tax relief plan that I worked with Congress to pass recognizes that when you've got an economic issue, you've got a people issue. And the more money people have in their pocket, the more likely this economy is going to grow.
There's been a lot made about the military might of the United States of America, and we're plenty tough. And we're plenty tough and plenty strong because we have a job to do, and that job is to protect America from the designs of terrorists who hate what we stand for. That is a charge we have been given. Protecting America is a charge we have been given, and it is a charge we will keep. And we have made it clear to people: If you harbor a terrorist, if you provide aid for a terrorist, you're just as guilty as any terrorist, and the United States of America will hold you to account.
We're bringing Al Qaida to justice. And for those we haven't brought to justice yet, we're hot on their trail. We're close by. We've got them on the run, and we'll keep them on the run. We sent a clear message to the Taliban in Afghanistan: "If you harbor and train terrorists, you will be held to account." The Taliban is no more, and the people of Afghanistan are free, thanks to America and our friends and allies.
We sent a clear message to Saddam Hussein: "Disarm. The world has asked you to disarm for 12 solid years, and now is the time, for the security of America and our friends and for peace in the world, for you to disarm." And we gave him plenty chance to do so, and he chose to defy the United States and our friends and allies. The regime of Saddam Hussein is no more. America is more secure; the world is more peaceful; and the long-suffering people of Iraq are now free.
This Nation is plenty strong militarily, but it's not the true strength of America. The true strength of America is the fact that we've got millions of fellow citizens who are willing to love a neighbor just like they would like to be loved themselves. That's the real strength of this country, because we're a deep and compassionate nation. When we see suffering, whether it be here at home or abroad, we care.
So today when I landed, I met a fellow named Ron Strauss. He is a—works for Cargill Cares Volunteer Council. He's just one of thousands of people here in the State of Minnesota that understand their job is to help somebody who hurts. He volunteers time to make a difference in somebody's life. He is willing to serve his country and his community by helping mentor a child, or by starting a Boys or Girls Club, or being a Scout leader amongst young kids, setting a good example, teaching somebody to read. There's all kinds of ways in which you can help serve your Nation by loving somebody like you would like to be loved yourself. I want to thank Ron for coming. And I want to thank all who are volunteering to make Minnesota a compassionate State.
And if you're interested in serving, just go to USA Freedom Corps on the computer, pull it up on the Internet, and there's all kinds of ways for you to serve our Nation. No, this country is militarily strong, but our true strength is the heart of our fellow citizens.
We have faced challenge in this Nation. We faced challenges to our security; we faced challenges to our economic security as well. I mean, starting in early '01, this Nation was in recession, which is three quarters of negative growth, a recession which affected the Treasury of the United States of America but, more significantly, a recession which affected the pocketbooks of our American citizens. Too many people who wanted to work couldn't find a job.
And things started to get kind of righted, a little better. Then all of a sudden the terrorists hit us, and the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, affected the economy of the United States. It hurt our economy. But we were strong, and we were resilient.
And then we found out some of our fellow citizens were not responsible citizens because they cooked the books. They had a responsibility to shareholder and employee, and they didn't tell the truth. They had positions of responsibility as CEOs in corporate America, and they didn't assume those positions responsibly. And the corporate scandals affected the psychology of the country, kind of shook our confidence a little bit.
And then we had war. And when you hear about war all the time on your TV screens, the speculation of war and the discussion of war, it's not conducive to a confident tomorrow.
But we acted. We acted by holding corporate scoundrels to account. We said loud and clear, if you cheat the shareholder and your employees, you will be held responsible for those decisions.
The world is now more peaceful because we acted.
But we also acted in concert with many in the United States Congress by passing two significant tax relief packages. You see, we understand that when things are slow in the economy, you've got to increase demands for good and services. And the best way to increase demand for good and services, so that somebody will produce a good or a service—and when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody is more likely to find work—is to let people keep more of their own money. That tax relief package we passed 2 years ago helped make the recession one of the shallowest in our Nation's history. And then I just finished signing another tax relief package, and that package is going to be good for a lot of folks. And I believe it's going to put wind at our back as this economy recovers from what has been a very tough period of time.
Right here in Minnesota, companies are adjusting withholding tables so that the working folks of this State will see more take-home pay. Tax relief not only means more take-home pay, but if you happen to be a mom or a dad with young children, you'll see the child credit go up from $600 a child to $1,000 a child. And a lot of those checks are going to be in the mail to you for the differential this July. As some of them like to say in Washington, the check's in the mail. [Laughter] In this case, it better be—[laughter]—or somebody's going to be looking for work. [Laughter]
As well, Congress is debating further relief for a family with children, further extension of the child credit. I urge them to complete the work on this legislation soon and get it to my desk.
As well, tax relief means a reduced marriage penalty. You see, we want the Tax Code to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage. Tax relief means lower rates on dividends and capital gains, now at 15 percent, to help more than a half a million Minnesota savers.
Tax relief means a lot for small business. You hear all the rhetoric coming out of Washington, DC, kind of class warfare rhetoric. But let me tell you why this tax relief is really good for American economy, besides encouraging more consumer spending and better consumer confidence: because most small businesses pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. If you're a Sub-chapter S or a sole proprietorship, you pay tax based upon what the individual pays. And so therefore, when I talk about tax relief, really what I'm talking about is more money into the treasuries of small businesses. And after all, that's important because 75 percent of the new jobs in America are created by small businesses all across this country.
This tax relief package allowed for higher expense deduction for small businesses, from $25,000 a year to $100,000 a year. And if a small firm invests more than $100,000, it will then qualify for a 50 percent bonus depreciation. Let me tell you what all that means. It means people are more likely to buy equipment. If there's an incentive for capital expenditure and confidence is coming back, people are more likely to make that expenditure.
Just ask the Hamiltons. Here at Micro Control, they've got 140 employees—up from 2, 30 years ago. And so the fundamental question is, can those folks stay working, or can he add jobs? One of the ways you add jobs is to make the workforce more productive. And one of the ways you make the workforce more productive is you add equipment, which makes your workers more productive.
And so I asked Harold, I said, "You've seen the tax bill; you've seen what—I'm sure you've looked at the consequences of what this means for your company." He said, "Yes, it means it's more likely we're going to hire a mechanical shaker." I didn't know what it meant. [Laughter] But I do know this, somebody is going to have to manufacture the mechanical shaker, which means somebody in some other plant is likely to find a job. He assures me the mechanical shaker makes his workforce more productive, which means not only the workers here are going to be likely to stay at work, but it may just mean he has to hire additional people to make that machine work. The Tax Code, the tax relief plan, has encouraged Harold and his wife to make additional investment, which is good for the economy.
I met Brian Dahl. He and his business partners purchased Capital Wood Products 12 years ago, and they moved it to St. Paul in the year 2000. What he wants to do to stay competitive is to purchase additional software. The tax bill that I signed provides incentives for Brian to purchase software so that his company is more productive. As he purchases the software, somebody has got to make it and sell it to him, and that somebody—means that they're more likely to stay at work.
You see, when you provide incentives to the Tax Code and people make rational decisions because of those incentives, it has an effect beyond the wall of the company just making the decisions. It ripples throughout the economy. If you're interested in job creation, which is what I'm interested in, I want to see good public policy that encourages jobs to be created in the private sector. And that's exactly what we have done.
Tim Rashleger is with us, with Milltronics Manufacturing. I met a couple of his employees. He wants them to keep working; that's what he wants. He's a little worried about his company's future. He analyzed the tax bill and said—in his words, not mine—he said, "This could save our company." And not only that, he's going to make additional investments this year; I think he told me $250,000 worth of additional investments. The tax bill saves his company $26,000. That's a lot for Tim. It's good news for his employees. But there's a lot of Tims across the country, just not the Tim right here in this building. There are Tims all across America who are the entrepreneurs of this country, the job creators of this country, who are more likely going to expand their job base.
Listen, I'm interested in one thing. I'm interested in helping people find work. I want people who want to work to be able to find a job. The tax bill we passed understands the significance of small business in our society. The tax bill we passed is really good for the American economy and will make it more likely somebody is going to find a job.
In order to make sure this country is hopeful and the economy expands and people feel secure, we need to deal with health care. We're on the verge of doing something really important for our seniors. We're going to make Medicare a modern system. And it's been hard to do in the past. But in the year 2003, it can be done. I believe it can be done.
I met yesterday with a group of United States Senators from both political parties. The spirit is good there. The issue used to be called "Medi-scare" because people were afraid to talk about the issue because of the political ramifications. I hope we've put all that needless party politics aside and focused on doing what we want to do for our seniors and to have a health care system that is modern, a health care system which includes prescription drugs, and a health care system which gives seniors different choices so they can tailor their health care plans after their own needs. After all, Members of the Congress and their staffs have got the capacity to have choice in their health care systems. And my attitude is, if choice is good enough for the Members of the United States Congress, it's good enough for the seniors of the United States of America.
The other issue regarding health care is whether or not health care is affordable and available, and one reason it's not in certain communities is because there's too many lawsuits. We've got too many junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care.
Listen, we want to make sure anybody who is honestly injured ought to have their day in court, of course. And bad doctors ought to be held to account. But medical liability is like a lottery, and they're filing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit, which causes premiums to go up, which means your bills go up. And it means many doctors in hospitals practice preventative medicine, which means they prescribe more than is necessary in order to make sure they cover themselves in case of a lawsuit, which causes your costs to go up. And in a lot of places, docs just quit practicing, which is not good for America.
Medical liability is a national issue—it drives the Medicaid budget; it drives the Medicare budget; it drives the veterans budget—and it requires a national solution. We've got a good bill out of the United States House of Representatives. We need to get it out of the United States Senate. And I would urge you to contact your United States Senators, one of whom I think is a pretty good vote on this issue.
We're worried about regulation on small business in Washington, DC. We understand what regulation does to our small businesses. I believe in associated health care plans for small businesses, to allow small businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional lines so as to reduce the cost to small businesses and their employees. The House is taking this bill up today—timely subject. I hope they pass it. And when they do, the United States Senate must act for the sake of affordable health care for the employees of small businesses all across this country.
And finally, we've got another issue, and that's the issue of energy. For the sake of this economy, we need an energy plan. Listen, I came to this good State and laid out an energy plan for Congress to consider. It was a plan that said we can do a better job of conservation, and we need to do that. We need to unleash new technologies.
But we've got a—we've got a problem with natural gas here in America. The demand for natural gas is going up, but the supply isn't. And any time the demand for a product is going up and the supply is not going up, the price goes up. And our policy thus far on exploration for natural gas has not been very consumer-friendly. There's been a lot of false science put out about what exploration for natural gas would do to certain parts of our country.
We're a technologically capable nation. We can explore for natural gas and protect our environment. We need a energy policy. We need an energy policy that not only helps the economic security of the United States; we need an energy policy that helps our national security, an energy policy which makes us less reliant on foreign sources of energy.
And we've got a lot ahead of us to do, but I'm anxious to do the job that you want me to do. And I believe we can get that done. I believe it. Listen, I've seen this great spirit of this country. I've seen the determination of the American people, the fierce courage of those who wear our uniform, the love and compassion of those who are neighborhood healers and helpers. Now, we're lucky people to live in America. There is no challenge that we can't overcome. There's nothing we can't do when we put our mind to it. And I firmly believe because of the character of the American people, this world will be more peaceful; America will be more secure; and the people that live in this country will be more hopeful.
I want to thank you all for coming today. May God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:11 p.m. in the warehouse at Micro Control Co. In his remarks, he referred to Harold Hamilton, owner, Micro Control Co., and his wife, Eleanor; State Auditor Patricia Awada and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau of Minnesota; Steve Sviggum, speaker, and Erik Paulsen, majority leader, Minnesota House of Representatives; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Brian Dahl, owner, Capital Wood Products; and Tim Rashleger, owner, Milltronics Manufacturing.
George W. Bush, Remarks in Fridley, Minnesota Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/213275


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Yes, it is necessary to have all site plans reviewed by the city. All plans for new construction, additions, and changes of land use must be reviewed to ensure compliance with all applicable city ordinances.
The need to pull a permit depends on the type of work being done. For instance, non structural work such as painting or laying down flooring or carpet would not require a permit.
Building permits are required for any structural work such as new constructions, additions, repairs to porches, siding and roofing work.
Electrical permits are required for any new wiring, installations or service upgrades and repairs.
Mechanical permits are required for any new installations or repairs to HVAC systems.
Plumbing permits are required for any new additions or repairs to water and gas lines.
In addition, inspections by our department are required to be done during and after completion of work.
Homeowners may do work at their own property as long as it is their primary residence. They would still be required to pull the necessary permits and have the work inspected.
Contractors who wish to pull permits for any building, electrical, mechanical or plumbing work in the City of Natchez must obtain a license with the Inspection Department.


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Yet another example of how the sub-prime market was a creature of the profit motive, and not government mandates.This is representative of the quality of public debate over what caused the mortgage meltdown. In public, there are only two sides: the liberal (Corporate Greed!) and the libertarian (Government Interference!).There is this fascinating little anecdote in Connie Bruck's Angelo's Ashes — about Angelo Mozilo's experiences in Florida as a dark skinned NY Italian, and how that impacted his later venture into minority lending (early 90s) amnd subprime lending (middle 90s):
"The new company [Countrywide] sent Mozilo first to Virginia Beach and then to Orlando. He had never lived outside the Bronx, and years later he told friends that it had been difficult to be a darkskinned Italian-American in these communities. In Virginia Beach, the local club where businesspeople congregated refused to admit him, and in Orlando he had trouble selling mortgages until he met a group of Jewish homebuilders who couldn't get financing. As his sister, Lori, told me, "Angelo said, 'Nobody wants to work with you. Nobody wants to work with me. Let's do it together.'And just what might have this done to Angelo's world view later on? Alex, I'll take pop psychology for $100:He was always this Italian guy people didn't want to accept." She went on, "When he tans he gets really dark. My mother told me that when he worked in Florida he was asked to sit in the back of the bus."
Despite Mozilo's ideals, Countrywide did not have a strong record of lending to minorities. In 1992, shortly after Mozilo became chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston issued a report stating that it had found systemic discrimination by mortgage lenders against African-American and Hispanic borrowers. Robert Gnaizda, former general counsel of the Greenlining Institute, a nonprofit organization focussed on minority rights, sent the report to Mozilo and other mortgage bankers. "I received a harsh response from Mozilo," Gnaizda told me.It was the Private sector that saw a profit opportunity and went for it. They made the loans. The government's role was to provide rhetoric . . .Privately, however, Mozilo was appalled. He ordered that all Countrywide's records on rejected minority applicants be sent to him, and he retroactively approved about half of them. Then he dispatched African-Americans, posing as prospective borrowers—he called them "mystery shoppers"—to Countrywide branches, and concluded that they were indeed treated differently from white borrowers.
Countrywide opened new offices in inner-city areas, created counselling centers, and loosened some lending standards, to include borrowers with less than pristine credit histories. Between 1993 and 1994, the company's loans to African-American borrowers rose three hundred and twenty-five per cent, and to Hispanics they increased a hundred and sixty-three per cent. In 1994, Countrywide became the first mortgage lender to sign a fair-lending agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Countrywide went from close to the bottom in lending to minorities to near the top," Gnaizda said. "I remember Mozilo telling me, 'I don't want to narrow the gap in lending to minorities, I want to end it.' "
Eventually, subprime loans became too attractive a business for Countrywide to resist. In September, 1996, it created a new subsidiary for these loans, called Full Spectrum Lending; if the loans performed poorly, the Countrywide brand would not be tarnished. "It was a careful entry, considered closely by those at the top of the company," a former high-level Countrywide executive recalled. "We sat together and asked each other, 'Would you make this loan with your money?' "
To offset the credit risk posed by subprime lending, the company required borrowers to make a substantial equity investment, ranging from fifteen to thirty-five per cent. . ."
In contrast, the real divide is between the overwhelmingly dominant Diversity Dogmatists, liberal and libertarian, versus the tiny number of Diversity Heretics. Personally, I don't oppose government regulation of the mortgage business to prevent over-optimistic borrowers and lenders from causing defaults down the road, so I'm not a libertarian on this. But, in this case, the federal government was (and still is) regulating in the wrong direction: toward more risk.
Would minorities have ended up getting vast amounts of overly optimistic loans anyway even if the government had been neutral on the question? Perhaps — the Diversity Dogma is so entrenched in our society that supposedly hard-headed businessmen like Mozilo believe it just as much as the politicians — at least judging from their public statements. And, in the long run, few people have the strength of character to be hypocritical enough to act prudently when acting on the "ideals" you constantly extol (but don't actually believe) can you make a lot of money in the short run.
Finally, even if government and business had been sensible, the brute fact of population change in California, replacing middle class people with peasant class people, would have caused massive problems in generating enough productivity to repay debts.
But this way of thinking is so foreign, so unthinkable that almost nobody understands the catastrophe that just happened to us.


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Access Bars®
Roma, Italy. Villino Corbelli viale Tirreno 176 Travel tips
10/03/2024 09:30->17:30 CET Check your local time HERE
English Italiano
The event will be paid in your currency or, if not available, in EUR
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(depend on today exchange rate and, for some classes, on your country of residence)
Do you remember the last moment in your life when you were totally relaxed and nurtured and cared for?
Or has it been a little too long since you received healing and kindness without any judgment of your body or your being?
An Invitation from Access Consciousness® founder, Gary Douglas and co-founder Dr. Dain Heer The first class in Access is The Bars®.
Did you know there are 32 points on your head which, when gently touched, effortlessly and easily release anything that doesn't allow you to receive?
These points contain all the thoughts, ideas, beliefs, emotions, and considerations that you have stored in any lifetime.
This is an opportunity for you to let go of everything! Each Access Bars® session can release 5-10 thousand years of limitations in the area of your life that corresponds with the specific Bar being touched.
This is an incredibly nurturing and relaxing process, undoing limitation in all aspects of your life that you are willing to change.
How much of your life do you spend doing rather than receiving? Have you noticed that your life is not yet what you would like it to be?
You could have everything you desire (and even greater!) if you are willing to receive lots more and maybe do a little less! Receiving or learning The Bars® will allow this to begin to show up for you.
Access Bars® has assisted thousands of people to change many aspects of their body and their life including sleep, health and weight, money, sex and relationships, anxiety, stress and so much more.
At worst you will feel like you have just had a phenomenal massage.
At best your whole life can change into something greater with total ease.
Taking the Access Bars® class is a prerequisite for all Access Consciousness® Core Classes as it allows your body to process and receive the changes you are choosing with ease.
Check your price
(depend on today exchange rate and, for some classes, on your country of residence)


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Local Transportation
Mount Mary University's campus is located in a residential neighborhood within walking distance to a few restaurants and shops, and a few blocks from a major shopping mall. Take a car, bike or public transportation to experience Milwaukee's beachfront, restaurants, attractions, downtown and more.
By Car:
Mount Mary is within about a 15-minute drive to many Milwaukee area attractions, including the lakefront.
By Public Transportation:
The Milwaukee County Transit System operates bus routes #57 and #60 along 92nd Street and Burleigh Street that stop near Mount Mary and connect you to various parts of the city. See MCTS bus routes and schedules.
By Bike:
Mount Mary is connected via the Menomonee River Parkway to the Milwaukee County Parks' Oak Leaf bike trails.


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Bharatanatyam dance costume readymade for Boys
- 3430MultiClrMale
- Condition:
- New
- Availability:
- Usually ships within 24 hrs
Please click here to see the dress size chart.
Item is on sale and can not be returned.
This is a readymade dance costume made of Art silk material for male dancers. Please make sure the size is OK for you. The color combination is as seen in the picture. We may only have selected sizes of this dance costume in stock.
If you didn't find a suitable size and color, don't worry - we also do custom made costumes. Since the custom made costumes are stitched in India as per your size, you may have to wait for 4-6 weeks to get it delivered to you. Custom made Indian dance costumes are stitched in India as per the measurements you have submited. We have expert tailors at various states of India to make different styles and designs of Indian dance dresses.
Most of the time, the colors are very similar to what you see in the picture. In some cases there may be a slight difference in the color shades and the shades of the Jari. Jari width may also vary costume to costume as these are done at diffrent times and by different tailors. No refund or return will be provided due such reasons.


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Plumbing permits will be issued to MN licensed plumbing contractors and homeowners completing their own plumbing work only. The applicant must be completing the work.
Please review the plumbing permit types listed below and select the best fit for your project. For permits requiring plan review, include all required submittals to help avoid delays.
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Select this permit type for all replacement or new plumbing equipment or appliances. A permit is not required for replacement of basic fixtures (water closet, lavatory, sink)
Select Minor Alteration/Repair permit type for minor alteration of plumbing systems including basement finishes where rough-in is pre-existing. Detailed scope of work shall be included in ePermit description.
Optional Submittals
Select this permit type for additions to a plumbing system where no rough-in previously exists and/or where major additions will occur.
Required Submittals
Prior to applying for plumbing permit verify if plumbing permit was included in building permit. Typically all New Dwellings are issued all-inclusive permits.
Select this permit type for projects where a new system is being installed i.e. detached structures
Select this permit type for all Commercial Plumbing Permits. Plan review will begin after permit acceptance. Fees will be due after review approved.


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Last week I listened in to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's markup of the global warming bill (S. 2191). While the meeting droned on until the early evening, it got me thinking again of my favorite statement: that all the action that counts in Congress, takes place in committee. Is this true?
I have written about committee markups before. In fact, it is my favorite topic. As the committee took a break to eat some pizza they had delivered, it struck home again that this is the true essence of Congress.
The markup session of S. 2191, titled the America's Climate Security Act of 2007, was billed as quite a historic session. [Editor's note: Industry groups lobby against climate legislation.] The bill provides the mechanisms to get the U.S. into the game of preventing (or at least slowing) climate change by reducing greenhouse gasses. You may recall that the U.S. signed the Kyoto Treaty but that the Senate never ratified it. While the rest of the world became obsessed with climate change, the U.S. ignored it (and at times, even dismissed it). It was so bad that then President Clinton didn't bother to send the treaty to the Senate for ratification. The Senate went on record in 1997 saying it opposed it, by a vote of 95-0 (see S.Res. 98 in the 105th Congress). So to see a Senate committee earnestly marking up a bill now that attempts to do the same thing as the Kyoto Treaty was significant. I also have to note that Washington, DC, was getting hit by it's first snow storm of the season as they were meeting, something that has strangely happened before when Congress talks about global warming.
The bill was written by two stalwart members of the committee, the sometimes Democrat but technically Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and the soon to be retiring Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia. While I will not go into the exact details of the bill, the measure provides for a "cap and trade" system for encouraging energy users and producers to produce and use less CO2 emitting energy, which causes global warming. This mechanism appears to be the most popular way of beginning to reduce greenhouse gasses, though the jury appears to be out on whether this is a successful concept. Both Canada and Europe have not had huge success with their systems. I yield on this point and will assume that the problem is in the program not the concept.
Democrats without a doubt have been the new proponents of addressing global warming, but there are very large fractures in their cause. There are traditional Democratic constituencies who are fiercely opposed to many elements of plans to cut greenhouse gasses, not because they like global warming, but because of the impact on the economy, particularly for jobs and the poor. Republicans have generally been skeptical of greenhouse gas reduction schemes as either ineffective or dangerous to the economy. The Democratic leadership however, such as the Chairperson of the committee, Senator Barbara Boxer of California, have been effusive proponents, with an almost Al Gore-like enthusiasm for the cause. The bill itself was not a long time in the making, at least on paper. It came to the fore in November, causing some to suggest that the Democrats needed something on the topic before the end of the year. Others opined that it was merely a publicity stunt, as some on the Committee were going to go to a U.N. global warming summit in Bali, Indonesia, right after the meeting and wanted to be hailed for their wise and comprehensive bill (they ended up not going). This is partially true. It was a late bill, but most things happen late in Congress; it was pushed in time for the U.N. summit, but there is also genuine concern on the topic.
For our discussion here, it is the markup that interests me. The bill went through a whole series of hearings leading up to this markup session. Every expert with anything to say on the topic weighed in the weeks beforehand. All culminated in the afternoon and evening of December 5 in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Over a hundred amendments where poised to be offered and it was looking like it was going to be a long night. As I listened, most of the elements of the markup that make me think of it so highly of the markup process was there. Normally in a markup, the Chairman of the committee usually comes prepared with his or her "mark", which is then usually offered first as a substitute amendment. This effectively hijacks the measure, no matter what the original bill stipulated. The chairman's substitute often wipes out everything and replaces it with what the chairman wants. It doesn't always happen, but if it is a major or controversial bill, you can expect it. In this case, the bill was spared this indignity. Senators Warner and Lieberman's text was not substituted for Senator Boxer's version although that does not mean she abdicated her influence. She proceeded throughout the whole markup session as this was her own bill, fiercely guarding the details and programs in the bill.
Then came the amendments. Both sides had a long list of amendments on every topic. They took turns, usually alternating between Democrat and Republican sides. I categorize committee amendments into three categories. First are the purely technical changes. Though the devil is often in these "technical" changes, they are normally seen as not particularly controversial. Second are genuine barnburners, the major controversial changes. Third are the parochial items which controversial or not, are very specific to the constituency of the member or Senator.
Technical amendments are just that. They parse the wording either to make a specific provision clearer or on occasion to correct innocuous errors in the text. These can be maddening to a researcher as they are not easy to figure out at face value. They usually read something like this:
Page 36, strike line 19 and all that follows before "there is authorized" on line 23.
Of course, if you were there, the member's description may describe what he or she is trying to do. If you were not, you have to go back to the original text and find what is specifically being changed. Searching by words for such things is useless. You have to look at the amendment, and then look back to the antecedent documents to see what is going on. Welcome to my world.
In a previous era, perhaps when no one was paying attention, such technical amendments could be pretty significant. Today, there is a whole city watching and parsing every word. I doubt on such a major bill that something would be sneaked in, but it could happen. Often these technical amendments are mercifully lumped together into "en bloc" amendments. They tell the Chairman, "I have 5 amendments", and ask for permission to lump them all into a block of amendments. The committee then votes once on them all.
My second type of amendment – controversial amendments and is why all the media show up to the markup. This is where the fireworks happen and tempers can get testy. In the case of this bill, one big controversy was nuclear power. When Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the former chairman of the committee, proposed an amendment to add nuclear power to the mix, things got animated. This is an interesting example of controversy in Congress. Most agree that nuclear power is going to be necessary, since it doesn't produce much greenhouse gas and produces power quite efficiently. Republicans pointed out that the word "nuclear" didn't appear in the bill. The reason it was not in the bill is because nuclear power is not popular so the amendment failed as the majority of the committee wasn't ready to deal with the political fallout of supporting more nuclear power. Congress doesn't take on controversy unless necessary. All appeared to agree that when the bill came to the floor of the Senate, they would debate the nuclear provision then, maybe.
The third amendment type, purely parochial amendments, always make me laugh. Often it is approval to build a new program at a local university (in the Senator's state) to study the issue, or to exempt some type of industry unique to the state from some odious requirement in the bill. =The local university usually wins, while exemptions often do not (though it can depend on who is proposing the amendment). If it is the chairman, it wins. Even Senator Hillary Clinton failed in one attempt. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, which is rich in coal, offered all kinds of parochial amendments. Some Barrasso amendments passed, (the University of Wyoming may get the designation: Rocky Mountain Centers for the Study of Coal Utilization); however, most failed.
When a member presents an amendment, the Chairperson usually will say whether he or she will accept it or not, which normally is a cue to his or her partisans to vote for it or not. Sometimes, of course, the vote can go against the chairperson, but don't count on it. The banter between members of the committee is also frequently interesting. Sometimes humorous, often it is quite mundane talk either about bill provisions, procedure and can frequently include such lines as, "the people of Idaho are concerned about…" The tone is usually very collegial and follows much the same format as a well-run meeting. Everyone gets their say, even though they may not get the votes they wanted.
The outcome is usually not in doubt in committees in Congress. The Senate Energy and Public Works Committee features 10 Democrats on the committee and 9 Republicans. Since Republican Senator Warner was one of the authors of the bill, his vote and the 10 Democrats usually won most of the votes, 11-8.
These markup sessions are critically important. In the House, where floor amendments can be strictly regulated, they are the only place a member can propose a change. In some cases, the actual bill is written completely in a markup. This usually happens for appropriations bills, but is done increasingly for other really big bills. The chairman comes with his mark and there is no original bill; they just work off of his or her mark. They add amendments and debate a bill that doesn't exist yet (providing another popular point of confusion to researchers). The committee is meeting but where is the bill? They will be writing it (or amending the chairman's mark) in the meeting itself.
The committee markup is one step you do not want to ignore. It is where the controversial items come up first in the process, and either are incorporated into the bill or receive their first legislative debate. The details of the specific amendments can be maddening; computer searches for words can be useless. You have to read the amendments. The personalities, the banter, the egos are all on display at the markup. They provide a great way to view all the elements in play all at the same time. When people visit and I send them to the Capitol, I tell them skip the tour, skip the floor debate, and skip the committee hearing. Go to a markup session; that is where the real work of Congress takes place.